During the night, I was woken up by a police officer, an overweight black woman. I could hear her talking outside the van, she was saying something about coming back at 3pm to see if I was still camped where I was. If I was, she’d do something about it. When I went outside, I found her talking to a young girl at the back of the van who had fixed my back windows. Someone had smashed both of them during the night and broken into the van, something I’d amazingly been able to sleep through. The young girl (about fifteen with long brown hair hanging loosely around her face) had kindly come along and patched up the windows with some slabs of timber, attaching them to the back doors somehow. She explained what had happened to me as I stood, astounded that I’d slept through it all, while the police woman noted everything down. I was then left with the decision of fixing the windows or leaving the timber in place and living with the patch job. Then I really woke up and looked straight at my windows, everything was intact. Weird dream.

I left Cracker Barrel to find a nice breakfast spot, heading to the closest public park. Lake Regional Park was only ten minutes away but as I entered, I was certain it would ask for some money. Of course, parking had a cost. It was just before 9am and I could see that no other cars in the carpark had paid for a ticket, so I pondered as I went to the bathroom. When I discovered there was a shower on the outside of the building, I was full of excitement. I was feeling energetic so decided I’d go for a run. Not wanting to worry about ticketing, I just paid the $1/hour ticket, even though I felt like a sucker for doing so. I kitted up and ran aimlessly around the park amongst all the retired folk walking with weights in their hands. I ended up doing only 5km, getting in at just under 25 minutes, which I shall have to improve on!

Absolutely covered in sweat, I gathered my shower stuff and went over to the bathroom block. There was nothing to say I couldn’t use the shower, and I was a paying customer, so I was shameless. Down to my underwear, I sudded myself up good and proper with many an onlooker I’m sure. It was a nice change to have running water though I did keep it short, not wanting to push my luck. I struggled to dry my body in the humidity, getting that sticky feeling when you pull clothes onto your body which isn’t quite dry.

The car park was full now, thanks to the farmer’s market that was happening. I was keen for a wander through, but my ticket had expired, but absolutely no one had a ticket on their dash! Bugger it, if no one else was paying, I wasn’t going to go through the hassle of going back to the stupid machine. As I walked over to the market, I asked a man in a vest about the parking and he informed me it is free until 1pm because of the market. Thanks for telling everyone! Assholes.

The farmers market was small, but nice to wander through. I’d resolved to buy a fresh smoothie if there was one on offer, but sadly I didn’t find the vendor I needed and settled for a sample of rockmelon (called “cantaloupe” in this backwards country). My run had tired me out and I wasn’t keen to really go anywhere, so I didn’t. I found a shady patch of grass on a hill behind the van. lay out my Thai mat and ate some brunch while I finished my book. “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” is one of the hardest reads I’ve had, but if you’ve ever done anything with cars, motorbikes or mechanical things, it hits home. The ending wasn’t what I expected and it threw me a little off guard, knowing everything is true.

Funny that I’m saying this, but it was too hot to do anything much and there wasn’t really anything in the area I wanted to see so I decided to drive on. America really is the land of extremes, it appears I’m never happy with the weather but that’s because it’s always too bloody hot or too bloody cold! On my way north, I found that the town of Fort Meyers consisted only of this highway (Hwy 41) and shop after shop after shop. And way too many traffic lights! Right at the tip of the town there was a historic district, which I wandered while I ate my lunch, but it is the exception to the rule. It’s like entering another country compared to what the rest of America is like. I didn’t stay too long since it was too hot, even with the breeze coming off the water inlet.

With the car getting too hot to be in and no beaches nearby, I stopped at a library near the town of Venice where I wiled away the afternoon doing things of little circumstance, though I managed to put my surfboard up for sale and make a few additions to the website. I stayed there until past 6pm having sapped their Wifi for all its worth. After calling ahead, I drove to a nearby Cracker Barrel for the night’s camp where I got straight onto dinner since I was bloody starving.

I’m essentially in a holding pattern now, waiting for a rocket to launch. On Valentine’s day (did you do that on purpose Elon?), Space X is launching its 12th Dragon spacecraft on the back of a Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Centre (where I was a few weeks ago). Considering it is only a three hour drive across the peninsula back to the launchpad, it is something that I think will be worthwhile seeing, so I’m basically going to hang around the next few days south of Tampa so I don’t have to backtrack too much. The launch has been delayed many a time, so I’m sure it will all go to shit, but it’s worth it just for a chance to see a rocket launch into the sky with my own eyes! I’m not good at hanging around and doing nothing, so this will be an interesting social experiment…